Pages

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I scored some free cherry wood on Craigslist. It is one of my favorite woods for smoking because it's fruity, not obnoxious, and versatile.I finally got my chainsaw back from my brother-in-law this weekend and the first thing I did was the kind of things you do when you get borrowed tools back from your brother-in-law. I disassembled it, cleaned it, and replaced the chain. Yeah, thanks dude.

I sawed the 6 feet long pieces down to 4-6 inch long pieces. Then I started splitting the small pieces into chunks for smoking food. Man this is a lot of work.

If only I had a readily available source of cheap labor. Hmmmmmmm.......light bulb!Actually Trevor loves splitting wood, it's like a game to him. I taught him how to "read" the wood so you can tell how it's going to split the easiest. You look at the rings and look for fissures pointing towards the center. Sometimes they are obvious "cracks" but other times, it is subtle changes of texture. My father taught me this when I was Trev's age and my grandfather (mother's side) taught him.

We split about 40 lbs into chunks. It's still a little wet so I'll have to let this season for another 6 months before I can start using it for cooking.We have about another 40 lbs to split. Anyone local have some apple wood to trade for some cherry?

1) Way to score off of Craigslist (1 point)2) Nice burn on the Brother in Law (1 point)3) Way to get child labour and turn it into a game. (1 point)4) Bonus point for the awesome food this will eventually be smoked into.

I helped out a guy with some bowling tips, and a place to get the work done, and he's bringing me some pear wood! I can't wait! I've used oak, alder, cherry, apple, hickory- even (shuddering!) mesquite! Pear should be a lot like apple, only better!